In today’s world, it’s very important to have a unique brand identity and for it to be visually recognizable. Not only will it help you build trust with your customers, but it will also help you spread brand awareness more easily. And there’s no better way to make yourself stand out from the crowd then through a smart choice of colors for your website.

Colors are extremely important when it comes to making your website likable for your customers and the choice of your color scheme should always be near the top of your priorities when it comes to web design. Here’s our list of eight things you need to know about when choosing the color scheme for your website.

Colors Affect Emotions

When users enter your website, they start judging it based on their subconscious and how the environment affects it. This basically means that upon entering the website, your users will be judging it mostly based on the color scheme you’re using. This is why it’s important to get familiar with the psychological effects different colors have. A good place to start is to get to know the right colors for your CTA buttons and how they affect the conversion rates.

Pick a Dominant Color

The color you pick as your dominant color is also your brand’s color and it should always be embedded into the website. A dominant color doesn’t mean it’s the color that’s represented the most, but the one that will hold its hue regardless of its surroundings. Coca Cola’s dominant color is red, but McDonald’s is actually yellow. This is the color you’ll be using on all your promotional material and how your target audience will remember you when they think about your brand. Picking a dominant color is a strategical choice and the one you’ll have to make with a lot of consideration.

Gender Differences

For this step, you’ll need to figure out whether your business is targeting women or men, or maybe even both. This is because different colors appeal to men and women, with some of the colors being in common.

Women like: Blue, Green, Purple

Women dislike: Orange, Gray, Brown

Men like: Blue, Black, Green

Men dislike: Orange, Purple, Brown

You can see that both genders are likely to be positively affected by blue and green color, while they both dislike orange and brown. This means that you’ll have a better chance hitting and affecting your targeted audience if you avoid orange and brown, while using green or blue. If you are favoring one gender over another as your target audience than it’s even easier to set up the color scheme according to this.

Accent Colors

Now that you have your dominant color picked out, it’s time to pick accent colors. These are used mostly to attract attention to certain parts of the website, while also giving the website more freshness compared to it being in single color. However, matching and mixing colors might prove a difficult task for most people, which is why almost any freelance web designer will get the hang of it through trial and error. With dominant and accent colors now on board, you are already half-way towards positively affecting your website visitors.

Choosing a Background Color

A background color is what creates the atmosphere on your website. It’s always chosen carefully based on the industry you’re in. An e-store will almost always use a neutral color so that they can draw attention to what really matters to them – products. On the other hand, design or fashion websites will usually be more graphic intensive because their agenda is to promote their creativity. Choose a background color that matches your industry and niche and make sure that it goes well with your dominant and accent colors.

Different Age Groups Prefer Different Colors

You probably didn’t know, but people change their color preferences over time and with age. Take a look at Joe Hallock’s Colour Assignment Study from 2003 which explains in detail how different age groups look on different colors. What you need to do is take it into consideration after you’ve figured out the age range of your target audience. Leave nothing to chance when it comes to picking colors for your website and you’ll be well on your way towards success.

Number of Colors Used

Most websites use three colors for maximum effect, but you can go for more than that if you feel the need. To break it down, it usually looks like this:

Dominant (or primary) color – around 60%

Secondary color – around 30%

Accent color – around 10%

Whatever your primary and secondary colors are, you’ll want your accent colors to be in contrast so they can do their job and highlight what’s important on the website.

Online Tools to Help You With Your Color Choice

If you’re still unsure about how to approach the issue (and even if you’re not), you can use a number of online tools to help you choose the best colors for your website. Adobe Color is a great tool which can help you choose your whole color scheme based on the dominant color that you picked. It takes a little time to get the hang of how the tool works, but once you do it will become absolutely invaluable. If you don’t like it, you can go with a tool like Colorspire instead.

Final Words

There’s no denying the fact that good usage of colors has helped build a number of brands throughout the decades and it can do the same for you. The choice of colors comes through careful consideration and strategy, and not by accident. By reading this guide you now have a good head start, but the most important thing is to experiment yourself and to do a lot of testing as well. Only that way you will come up with a uniquely colored website that is going to attract people’s attentions.

https://lakeviewstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/word-image.jpeg6831024Benjamin Shepardsonhttps://lakeviewstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/lvstar-Invert-300x125.pngBenjamin Shepardson2017-09-14 11:49:352017-09-14 11:50:348 Important Things To Consider Before Choosing The Right Color For Your Website

Did you know that every single day, approximately 144.8 billion emails are exchanged? And what’s more mind-blowing is that 84% of this mails end up in your spam folder. Don’t you think this kind of makes it obvious that many people are totally unaware of the aspects that are accountable for great marketing strategy?

You may think nobody even notices an email signature but the smartest online entrepreneurs will tell you otherwise.

It is more than just a decoration, an email signature is your identity to somebody you want to build a professional collaboration with and who knows simply nothing about you.

In fact, reports have shown that successful email marketing campaigns can garner 4300 percent ROI. Below, we will discuss 7 do’s and don’ts that’ll help you reach your marketing goals.

Do Find a Good Layout: This is the first and most important step for creating an impressive email signature that’ll promote your business. A good email signature should be informative and neat.

What information you’d need to put in the signature will depend on the kind of business you are promoting. Remember that everyone is a fan of simplicity.

So, keep the information to-the-point.

Don’t Clutter It with Too Much Information: There is absolutely no point in using an email signature to write your autobiography. If you overstuff your signature with truckloads of links and information, that would be a major turn-off for your potential clients.

The chances of anyone opening the never-ending list of URLs in your signature is too less.

Do Include Social Media Links: 21st century is all about making your presence felt over the web and social media platforms have leveled the ground for everyone. If you or your company has no presence on social media, people will find your business shady. That’s plain psychology.

Adding Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin links to your signature will help you generate more traffic and most importantly, your business will be talked about, that’s the goal, right?

Don’t Use Multiple Fonts and Colors: Minimalism is in vogue right now. Treat your email signature like a signature only, it is not a medium to show-off your graphic designing skills.

In order to avoid making the design overly complicated, limit the number of color palettes in the signature and always use only one type of font.

Using the same font you use for writing the email for the signature as well gives it a nice touch of professionalism. Choose a type and size of font that’s easy to read, e.g. Ariel, Calibri, Tahoma, Verdana, Gill Sans and a few more.

Do not use Comic Sans at any cost because you wouldn’t want to come across as an unprofessional, unserious business person, would you? To make the design clean and eye-catching, again, opt for the minimalist approach.

A pro tip is to take inspiration from the colors present in your logo. This will help your clients and users connect to your brand more effectively.

Do Include Your Blogs: Including your blogs, Podcasts, Webinar in your signature is also a smart marketing tactic in the digital era. If you keep adding fresh content on your blog and hyperlink it to your email, the recipients will get an easy access to new content and will keep coming back for more.

Don’t Use Personal Quotes Unnecessarily: If you’re promoting a serious business, you have to create a solid impact on the email recipients. The best way to do is include information related to the brand only. Using personal quotes, unless you are a globally recognized celebrity, would be over-the-top and kick of tacky as well.

Do Keep the Font Palette Small: Previously, we spoke about keeping the color palette small, now we will talk about the importance of keeping the font palette even smaller. The whole point of chalking out an impressive email signature is to increase brand awareness.

Using different fonts for highlighting different texts would make it look like school project of a student who ran out of materials to write about. If you want to get a flexible typeface that can be customized according to your liking, the internet has a plethora of options for you.

Don’t Add Long Disclaimers: Inserting a long disclaimer in email signatures is a very common mistake people make. Now you might argue that it’s better to be safe than sorry. Well, sorry to pop the bubble here.

No legal advisor will ever tell you that email disclaimers hold any weight. Its function is strictly limited to just annoying people.

Do Use Dividers: Use dividers to keep the contents of the signature organized and maintain a strong hierarchy. Full-bleed dividers will help the most important pieces of information in your signature like Name, Contact Info highlighted so that they readily capture the attention.

Don’t Jam It with Social Media Buttons: This might counterintuitive to our suggestion to use your email signature as a medium to general more traffic to your social media pages. Having said that, overdoing anything in an email signature has more demerits than otherwise.

Tailor your signature according to your target customers and the brand. Use maximum 4 social media buttons (use icons instead of URLs) to keep the space uncluttered.

Do Use Professional Headshots: Using a headshot instead of a full body photo (do not use selfies) is another tip you must follow to create lasting impact on the recipients. Make sure to look professional in the photo, dress in formals and keep the hair well-groomed, look directly at the camera and pose against a not-so-flashy background.

Headshots are best of email signatures because it highlights your face and as the image size would be small, it will take less time to load.

Don’t Use Too Many Images: Once again, let’s stick to “the lesser, the better” policy. Including too many images in the signature can make the emails end up in the Spam folder. Limit it to maximum 2 images. The pictures you choose should be relevant to the service you’re promoting.

Do Make the Signature Mobile-friendly: Everyone has smartphones these days and the number of people opening emails from their phones is ever-increasing. Did you know that 48% of the total mails delivered everyday are opened on phones. That’s something to take note of.

To kickstart a successful email signature marketing, you have to pay attention to the scale of your design. For small screens, you need to optimize the size of the logos, images, shorten the long website links and email addresses. If you are going to use a wide logo, make sure to use a vertical template.

Don’t Overcrowd with Too Much Content: As you might have already remembered by heart now, less is more when it comes to designing a cool and catchy email signature. Including irrelevant content like quotes and sagas of your achievements will only backfire.

Your business blog has a lot of important jobs to do. You want to use it to establish your business as an authority in its niche, to keep in touch with current and future customers, and turn your readers into buyers. In order to do that, you need to have a blog that inspires trust. Your followers deserve a clean, professional looking blog. You’re trying to win them over, and how much care and attention you put into your blog just might be the most important factor in that process.

Choose the Right Color Scheme

Colors are more important than a lot of people realize. If they’re all mismatched, a cohesive theme is lost. If your blog is mostly black and white, it may look poorly maintained. Certain color schemes evoke certain feelings. Colors should match your brand and be consistent throughout your blog. You want enough contrast between your background and font colors in order to make the blog easy to read. Navigational features should be colored to stand out, and areas of interest should pop against plain content.

Improve Your Graphics

If you’re relying heavily on things like stock images and text tables, your readers are going to notice. You need custom graphics. For blog posts that feature a lot of information, it’s worth translating some of that information into an infographic. Since most people are visual learners, you want to make sure you’re paying enough attention to the visuals they’re getting. If you’re not a graphic designer, you can always hire one on Gumtree to refresh the graphics you currently have and generate new ones for posts.

Make Navigation Simple

You want your readers to click around on your business blog. The longer they’re there, the more interested they are in what you’re doing. If they can’t find the rest of your content, there’s no reason for them to stick around. Make sure your blog is highly organized. Get rid of clickables, widgets, and features that add no value to your blog. Keep your menus sleek and simple, and make sure all of your navigation is optimized for mobile. Since about half of your blog’s traffic will come from smartphones, you need to be sure everyone can use it.

Have a Thorough “About” Page

Who is behind your blog? How are your readers to know that you aren’t some lonesome guy or gal camping out in a basement? Make sure your “About Us” page features valuable information about your business. Let them see addresses, phone numbers, and contact information. Feature short profiles on the employees responsible for running the blog. It shows that you’re committed enough to what you do that you’re willing to put your name on it, and reinforces the concept that you’re all real people. This is great for both trust and professionalism.

Be Careful With Ads and Clutter

Blogs that are littered with advertisements, whether they’re for your own products and services or general ads placed for revenue, often translate as eyesores. If you have a lot of junk all over the place, your blog might seem less like a valuable resource and more like a clickbait scam. If you want people to take you seriously, you need to be very careful with your advertisements. If your readers feel like all you care about is making money, they’ll lose sight when it comes to the value you actually provide.

Always be willing to accept feedback from your readers. Make sure you’re active in the comments section. If they don’t like the way something looks or works on their blog, they’ll probably tell you. Be a good listener, and be willing to make improvements when your readers suggest them.

As part of a small marketing team, Margaret Austin, likes to write about digital marketing trends and anything that helps entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. She’s interested in photography and modern art.

https://lakeviewstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/customer-service.jpg321844Benjamin Shepardsonhttps://lakeviewstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/lvstar-Invert-300x125.pngBenjamin Shepardson2017-07-13 10:22:422017-07-13 10:22:42How to Make Your Business Blog Look More Professional

Mobile-friendly content can make or break your message. No lie. The proof is in the stats below.

The year 2015 was when the US market hit the mobile tipping point , with mobile-only users exceeding desktop-only users for the first time. Globally, the number of mobile users overtook folks on desktops for the first time in 2014.

Approximately 59% of smartphone users expect companies to make their websites mobile-friendly . Meanwhile, Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing, with 40% turning to a competitor’s site instead.

So here are the lessons we can take away from this:

a) Mobile is a very important way to consume content.

b) People expect their mobile journeys to be simple, intuitive and clever. They will punish sites that look bad on mobile.

Most conversations about mobile accessibility start with the design. Easy navigation, simpler templates, and adaptive fonts are all being employed to make things easier to read. But as a copywriter , it’s worth remembering that you too have a role to play.

It’s not just the design that needs to be mobile-friendly, but the content has to be, too. Your writing needs to work well with mobile. Here’s how:

No big words

Most wireframes and web mock-ups are designed for the big screen, and your vocabulary looks amazing sitting in the middle of an expansive page. But those big words will often get hyphenated in a smaller mobile screen, and will just look ugly. Throw a few of them in there, and they’ll disrupt the reading experience and increase bounce rates.

No long sentences

Same principle as above, really. Real estate for copy is really at a premium. Long sentences take up too much room. Try and keep your sentences short – and concise. This doesn’t mean mangling them. Instead, go over them repeatedly to weed out weak words and flab. Ask yourself how you can say the same thing elegantly in fewer words.

Chunk up your text

Broadsheet newspapers and print magazines get away with unbroken text. Marketing websites don’t have that luxury. Your viewers will want to get the gist of what you say in a hurry. Think of it as the bite, the snack and the meal approach.

The bite

Some readers just want the bottom line. So summarize everything you’re about to say in a heading carrying a strong message.

The snack

Some mobile readers have a bit more time. Think of them as slightly hungry for content. They’re happy to read a paragraph that gives them your main talking points. Here, never just take the top paragraph from your content and post just that. Instead, take the time to create a two- to three-line summary that captures the gist of what you’re saying.

The meal

Be hospitable and offer up a full meal for guests who are really hungry for your content. The meal is your full argument, presented well and carrying supporting facts and figures to make your case.

This approach is very powerful in that it lets users select how hungry they are (i.e., the amount of content they want to consume). You’ve got something for everyone, no matter their appetite.

The trick is to have the bite, the snack and the meal in the same screen or document. So, the bite can be the heading, the snack an introduction (or conclusion), and the meal the full body text.

Create lists and bullets

Your high school teacher might have thought numbered lists were a sign of laziness. But on mobile screens, lists and bullet points are a very effective way of linking together related content without using too many words. Lists also introduce white space, which tends to look good on a mobile screen.

Short paragraphs with sub-headings

You’ll see we’re developing a bit of a theme. On mobile – and in fact, on any device – it’s a good idea to structure well, so readers can skim. They will then spend more time on the bits that appeal, and speed-read the rest. Put breaks in the text. And write brief sub-heads that let readers know what they’re about to read.

Go simple

So, here’s your “snack” for this piece. If there’s one thing that you should take away, it’s the need to go simple . It’s the one great trick to writing more effective copy, and not just on mobile. Remember – your audience is reading your marketing copy because they want solutions to their pain points. So give them their answers – as directly and fluently as possible.

AUTHOR BIO

Hisham Wyne is an award-winning copywriter, brand consultant and content creator based in Dubai. He has over a decade’s experience in helping brands get their messages right. From crisp web copy and zippy brochures to in-depth company profiles and analytical annual reports, Hisham makes words work for you – so you can sell better, gain visibility, and give your brand a unique voice.

During his time in the Middle East, Hisham has collaborated extensively with blue-chip companies including Twitter, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Harley-Davidson and Aston Martin, and helped government concerns such as the Dubai Internet City, in5 and the Dubai Design District.

If you would have a choice between reading one page of content or scanning the information from a graph or pie chart, which one would you prefer? Seems like a question with very obvious answer, right? Well, your audience would give the same answer too!

No matter which segment of the population your readers/customers belong to or whether they are vigorous readers or not, everybody would rather have the entire information presented to them in a pictorial or summarized form than reading long paragraphs.

And it is actually ironic right now because I am going to tell you about the infographics through a content-based article. Well, at least you will know to use more of infographics and how to create them for your next piece of writing if you read this.

What are infographics?

A pictorial or visual representation of data and information is called infographic. It could be in the form of chart, map, graph, illustration, picture or image among other visual aids. Their attention requiring span is less, which makes them more preferable by the millennium. The reader can actually scan the entire data presented in the infographics within seconds and get a better understanding of the message that is being conveyed.

How are Infographics Created?

Since you are going to represent data in your infographics, the process is actually more about thinking how will you structure the data before you actually get to create a design. Just follow the following 5 steps and you will be able to create a perfect infographic for your audience:

Conceptualize

The first and most significant step is to think of a good concept, the answer or explanation of which can be represented in the form of a story and which people would actually be interested in knowing about.

Analyze Data

You would be required to extract the data that you have and simplify it in such a matter so that it can be presented in a few words or using symbols. If you will write long sentences in your infographic too, it will sabotage its purpose.

Visual Structuring

It is very important that you choose a visual metaphor that goes well with your audience as well as the content that you are going to present. Don’t just make it easy for readers, it should be attractive too.

Design

Once you have the image of how you want the infographic to look like and where will the information go, you can get started with designing it using many online tools, some of which are available for free also.

Socialize

The major objective behind creating infographics is that they are easily shareable and often manage to create a viral effect as compared to plain content. So, publish it on major social media platforms with relevant captions.

Trending Infographic Tools

We just discussed above that you have many online tools available that can help you learn and create some really good infographics to serve your requirements. However, there are so many options that you might be confused that which one should you use.

You don’t have a reason to be doubtful anymore! Because after testing and using these tools, I have compiled a list of 8 best online resources that help in designing some amazing infographics.

With minimal data skills, you can create visuals using this tool by connecting with the huge community of designers, journalists, and developers. In fact, it is one of the most widely used online tool by the designers throughout the industry.

If you have the data that you want to present using an infographic stored in your system in an organized manner, then you certainly cannot find a tool that you let you import all the information and create visuals in the minimum span of time.

Even if you are new to designing, this tool will make you feel like a pro with its step-to-step guidance of how to create infographics. There are thousands of themes available to be used by everybody which are designed by the professionals.

Word clouds feel like the graffiti in the informatics world and you can create some really cool word clouds using this tool. You can make your clouds more appealing using different font styles, color schemes, and layouts before sharing them with the world.

An exclusive app for iPhone users, this tool lets you create infographics using the photos present in your iPhone storage. Though it is a paid app with minimal charges, it is definitely worth trying owing to the fact that it is pretty fun and simple to use.

We are talking about actually a highly acclaimed tool by the professionals when we name StatPlanet. You can create interactive graphs and maps which are full of features and can be customized later with so much ease using this tool that you will have to use it to believe me.

If you are looking for an all-inclusive tool that would have a huge library of fonts and images to choose from, easy photo editing tools and drag-and-drop function so that you can easily import the data from your system, then Canva is certainly the perfect tool to match your requirements.

These tools will let you design infographics for your professional meetings, class presentations and your websites/blogs with so much of ease that you would not even require a seasoned designer to create the appealing informational images to serve your purpose. So, what are you waiting for? Install these tools and start creating!

About the Author:

Ashish Sharma is a Key Account Manager, looking after Marketing Strategies and building new business tie-ups at WeDigTech – One of the Top Rated Mobile App Development company in India with sales office in US and Europe. Focused on helping enterprises StartUps from domestic to MNCs.

If your website is slow-loading, then you’re losing visitors hand over fist. What many website owners don’t realize is that even though WordPress has created a revolution in DIY websites, they don’t do much to prevent unsuspecting newbies from creating sites that load like it’s 1999 when we were all using dial up.

Yes, that premium WordPress theme you have looks great, but when you try to stick numerous 2 mb photos you took with your fancy new phone, you might just be bringing the whole thing to a grindingly slow halt.

Here are the two most important things you should do to lighten up your site so it loads faster.

1. Reduce Your Image File Size

Of course one main source of website bloat has always been images. We all want fancy, beautiful images to grace our websites, but if you’re not careful they can be the prime reason your website loads slower than most visitors are willing to wait around for.

Reducing your image file size is the first place to start, especially if you’re using a new WordPress themes which features any of the following:

Parallax backgrounds

Hero images

Header sliders

Also consider your blog post feature images, which can line up on your blog home page like a parade of heavy, slow buffaloes and take eons to download.

But you chose smaller sizes when you inserted those images into your post, right? Doesn’t that reduce the image file size? Not always.

Here’s what trips up lots of website owners…

Some WordPress themes will stick a full-size image where really all that’s called for is a tiny image. But the image is small! you say. Not quite, and here’s why.

The displayed image might be tiny, but unless you’ve fixed things, when someone visitors your site, it is first loading the full-size image, then shrinking it on the spot to display it smaller. Total waste of resources.

There are two ways to handle the image problem in WordPress.

You have a choice in how to reduce your image sizes. You can use photo editing software (pre-upload), or you can enlist the services of a plugin (post-upload). Personally, I prefer the first method. Both give the same result, which is exporting your original (heavy) image into a lesser quality (lightweight) image.

But I don’t want bad quality images that look grainy!

Nope, I didn’t say you had to re-export your images into bad quality images. I recommended “lesser quality”. Trust me, you won’t be able to tell the difference between a quality measure of 99 and one of 80. You’ll be cutting the weight down significantly, but not the perceived quality.

This image weighs a gargantuan 460 KBs when exported at a quality rating of 99. If I turn the rating down to a quality of 75, I can’t really tell the difference and now the weight is down to 72.9 KBs!

For further reading on the image optimization, I recommend this article which covers everything from how to choose the right image format, downsizing the resolution, and compares different online tools and WordPress plugins currently available for reducing image file size.

Let’s see how many MBs when can load on there!

2. Cache Your Site

Images aren’t the only things that slow down your website’s load time. Your website can be large (because of images) or it can also be complex (because of scripts).

Another reason to cache your site.

Shared hosting will suspend your account if your website uses too many resources. Scripts that constantly run to the database to create portions of your website aren’t necessarily bad, but once you get a lot of fancy plugins going, that’s a lot of script-grabbing taxing the database.

Plus, once you add lots of traffic to the scene, you’re really dealing with a major slowdown in load time.

JS files are now literally heavier than entire websites used to be.

Modern websites almost always have some javascript on them. For a while, that wasn’t the case, but now JS is back in full force and everybody’s using it.

The problem? A Javascript file may literally be bigger than an entire website was 10 years ago.

Back in the day, the general rule of thumb was you weren’t supposed to use images that were more than 30-70 KBs. You also weren’t supposed to make websites that were more than 800 pixels wide, and each page was to be no more than 100 KBs.

Now javascript files are like 100 KBs each, and sometimes there are like 5 javascripts on one page! Plus plugins! And plugins use javascript too, so you can imagine how ginormous fancy websites are these days.

So, what do cache plugins do, exactly?

Cache plugins will create a text version of your website. Instead of calls to database, and having to run all the functions in the PHP script to generate the pages, it’s taking the output of all that and creates a static file of the final HTML. Then all it needs to do is serve up that one static file whenever someone visits your site.

Cache plugins also put your site on a diet, trimming the fat in several ways to make it lighter so it loads faster. Here are some of those ways:

Minify. This means stripping the white space out of your javascript and CSS to make those files smaller. This includes tabs, comments, spaces, and new lines in the CSS files.

Grouping of files. Will combine several script files into one, making it possible to have fewer http requests. Also does this for CSS files.

Packs JavaScript scripts.

The bottom line.

Examine your photos, and cache your site, that’s really it. To test the results of your efforts, use tools.pingdom.com or the Google Mobile-Friendly Test to see how fast your website actually loads. Keep tweaking until you get the speed you need.

Search this site

Latest Post From the Blog

We all know that social media can be a really effective marketing tool. It gives you a direct line to your customers, allows you to build your brand and helps you direct traffic to your website. But which social media platforms should you be using? Creating and maintaining a strong presence on all of them […]